High concentration of registered sex offenders live in city’s core

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Southeast London, a part of downtown London and a swath of the Sarnia area have the highest concentration of sex offenders in Southwestern Ontario, while Stratford and St. Thomas have among the lowest of cities, just-released figures show.

The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services released a breakdown of the number of sex offenders in Ontario by partial postal code after a six-year access-to-information battle launched by a Toronto television news outlet.

In London, 57 registered sex offenders are living among 23,660 people in the N5Z postal code area, bordered by Adelaide St. in the west, Bradley Ave. in the south, Highbury Ave. in the east and Florence St. in the north.

A stretch of downtown London, bordered by Adelaide in the east, the Thames River in the south, Richmond St. on the west and Pall Mall St. in the north, has the highest concentration of registered sex offenders — 46 among 10,044 people, or 457 per 100,000.

The concentration of registered sex offenders around the region varies.

In the Sarnia postal code of N7T, which covers a large swath of the city, 64 registered sex offenders live among 26,602 people, or 240 per 100,000 people, while St. Thomas had among the lowest of cities, 21 in its main N5R postal code, where 26,971 people live — 77 per 100,000.

Some small rural stretches had even fewer.

The N6N and N6L covering the rural stretch between London and St. Thomas had one and no sex offenders respectively among their relatively low populations.

But whether your neighbourhood has a sex offender or not, London police Det.-Supt. Bill Merrylees said there’s no threat to public safety. The information released isn’t new to police, who’ve been tracking registered sex offenders in the city since 2001.

There are 435 registered sex offenders living in London, he said, and now the public knows roughly where they’re living.